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Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — June 2000


Sheveluch

Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 25, no. 6 (June 2000)
Managing Editor: Richard Wunderman.

Sheveluch (Russia) Short-lived explosive eruptions 30 June-3 July

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2000. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Wunderman, R., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 25:6. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN200006-300270



Sheveluch

Russia

56.653°N, 161.36°E; summit elev. 3283 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


During June-July 2000 seismicity was generally at background levels with occasional weak fumarolic activity; the hazard level was Green. However at 0447 on 30 June, visual reports indicated a short-lived explosive eruption and an ash-gas plume that rose to about 8 km altitude; in response, the hazard status was raised to Yellow. Similar reports indicated that a short-lived explosive eruption at 1644 on 1 July sent and an ash-gas plume to ~6 km altitude. The mushroom-shaped plume extended to the W and at 2034, satellite imagery showed the arched plume extending 70 km NW. At 1728 on 1 July seismic data indicated a less intensive short-lived explosion, and on 2 July several weak explosions occurred and a gas-steam plume rose 300-700 m extending 3-5 km to the W and E. On 3 July seismicity under the volcano returned to background levels and the hazard status was reduced to Green.

Geological Summary. The high, isolated massif of Sheveluch volcano (also spelled Shiveluch) rises above the lowlands NNE of the Kliuchevskaya volcano group. The 1,300 km3 andesitic volcano is one of Kamchatka's largest and most active volcanic structures, with at least 60 large eruptions during the Holocene. The summit of roughly 65,000-year-old Stary Shiveluch is truncated by a broad 9-km-wide late-Pleistocene caldera breached to the south. Many lava domes occur on its outer flanks. The Molodoy Shiveluch lava dome complex was constructed during the Holocene within the large open caldera; Holocene lava dome extrusion also took place on the flanks of Stary Shiveluch. Widespread tephra layers from these eruptions have provided valuable time markers for dating volcanic events in Kamchatka. Frequent collapses of dome complexes, most recently in 1964, have produced debris avalanches whose deposits cover much of the floor of the breached caldera.

Information Contacts: Olga Chubarova, Kamchatka Volcanic Eruptions Response Team (KVERT), Institute of Volcanic Geology and Geochemistry, Piip Ave. 9, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 683006, Russia; Tom Miller, Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), U.S. Geological Survey, 4200 University Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA (URL: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/).